


read my lips

by trashmouthtrash



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Blood, Gen, Hurt Jughead Jones, Hurt/Comfort, Lips sewn shut, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Torture, bughead but it's not the main focus, dark themes, idk when this would be set, yeah this is gonna be a fun one kiddos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-05-07 18:19:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14676735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashmouthtrash/pseuds/trashmouthtrash
Summary: "Archie taps Jughead on the shoulder, and Jughead flinches, throwing himself backward, away from the uninvited hand. He curls into himself, moaning, then finally looks up at them with wide, glassy eyes, and that is when it becomes apparent that Jughead’s lips are sewn shut."





	1. red lips and rosy cheeks

Forsythe Pendleton Jones III has been missing for a week and Elizabeth Cooper is having none of it.

Jughead was last seen at Pop’s in the small hours of the morning. His bike was found stashed in an alley - he hadn’t even made it home.

Betty is relentless in her searching, asking everyone about everything and only stopping when she physically can’t take another step. She’s terrified, and desperate, and pissed off because Sherriff fucking Keller is convinced Jughead ran away.

But Betty //knows// Jughead, //knows// he wouldn’t do that to her, //knows// that something feels very wrong and she doesn’t know what to do about it besides //look// until she finds him.

In the end, of course, it’s Jughead who finds her.

XXX

Step. Drag.

Step. Drag.

Jughead is running - no, limping away from the bad man who hurt him. He needs help, he knows, but he can’t scream because somebody’s sewn his lips shut and he’s scared, he’s fucking terrified and he doesn’t know what to do but //run//.

He can hardly breathe, and his left foot is completely crushed and the sight is gory and the pain is paralyzing. It hurts, it hurts so much that he sees white, and he wants to stop so badly but he can’t go back there.

There, with the mutilated corpses of his former cellmates and the blood-covered medieval torture devices that the man is so fond of, and now Jughead is swallowing vomit because he knows if he vomits he will choke on it, so instead he focuses on moving. 

Step. Drag.

Step. Drag.

He needs to find Betty, Betty who kept him alive by being in his thoughts and reminding him he has something to live for.

XXX

“Betty Cooper, you are not going out at this hour. I know you want to find that Jones boy, but as much as I like him you need to sleep.”

“Please, Mom. Just fifteen minutes.”

“Fine.”

Betty rips her coat from the wall and jogs to Archie’s car, hopping in the backseat. Archie and Veronica are already waiting, and they’re moving before Betty had closed the door. Archie flicks on the window wipers - a light drizzle had begun dotting the windows with raindrops.

Archie swears. “The rain’ll erase anything from today. I knew we should’ve gone earlier.”

“We can still have a look around.” Veronica murmurs. She opens her mouth as if to continue, but is interrupted by her phone ringing. Veronica picks it up, eyes widening slightly. “It’s my dad. He said he’d look into Jug’s case tonight and call me if he found anything.”

Veronica answers the call; Betty sits up, blatantly eavesdropping. Veronica goes silent, listening. Suddenly, her face loses all color and she gasps. She hangs up the phone, putting it down with trembling hands, and turns to Betty with wide eyes.

“What? What did he find, V, please?”

Seeing the hope on Betty’s face, Veronica backtracks. “I’m sorry, Betty, he didn’t find Jug. But he thinks they might have a lead. But it’s far-fetched and unlikely and might not be true so don’t… don’t freak out.”

Betty nods.

“There’s been reports all around the state of teenagers going missing and one of them escaped. He talked to the cops and showed them where he’d been held captive, and they found four bodies.”

Betty freezes. “Was he…”

“No! No, Jug wasn’t… he wasn’t there. But they haven’t found the guy, and there are still several other teens missing. And the police think he might be in either Riverdale or Greendale.”

Betty lets out a small, breathless laugh. “So if we can find this guy, we can find Jughead!”

“It’s a stretch, but it’s possible. But, Betty, there’s something you need to know.”

Betty’s eyes light up with hope; it kills Veronica to smother it, but it’s a necessary evil.

“This man… he’s fascinated with history. According to the victim, he’s built his own torture devices and uses them on the people he kidnaps. If this guy has Jughead…”

Betty doesn’t need her to finish the sentence. If this guy has Jughead, her boyfriend could be dead or critically injured.

If this guy has Jughead, they don’t have much time.

XXX

Time.

Jughead isn’t moving anymore. He’s frozen, and he’s not sure how long he’s been that way, which is alarming in itself. But his mind is moving sluggishly, drowning in pain and terror.

He urges himself forward, his pace exceptionally slow but persistent. Keep going, he tells himself. Get to Betty.

Step. Drag.  
Step. Drag.

He stumbles; his knee buckles and he hasn’t the strength or the will to prevent his fall. It hurts, it hurts even worse than when he was standing because the impact aggravates his foot and lips.

In the distance, he sees a headlight. Headlights mean cars and cars mean people and people mean help.

And help means Betty.

In his haste, he puts weight on his injured leg and yelps, but it’s stifled. Weakly, he waves his arm in the air.

He sees several figures standing around the car, and he thinks they see him, because they start heading toward him. Their footsteps are music to his ears, and he sighs, sagging slightly. //Help was coming. He made it.//

Then, he hears another set of footsteps, this time coming from behind him. He hears a voice, that voice, sending shivers down his spine.

“Did you really think it would be that easy?”


	2. say you'll see me again

XXX

Archie parks on the side of the road, in a wooded area by the river. The plan had been to check for footprints, but the unexpected rain had thrown a wrench in that idea. They are about to turn around, in fact, when Archie sees something move in the light of the headlights.

“Did you see that? It looked like someone was out there.”

Betty’s head snaps forward as she gazes intently forward; there is movement again, like someone is waving. Betty flies toward it before the others can stop her.

Archie and Veronica follow, but not before Archie grabs something from the glove box.

A pistol.

Veronica raises an eyebrow at him, but he gives her a look that says, //later//. Veronica knows Riverdale well enough to know that Archie is right to be cautious. Veronica grips her phone tightly. When the two catch up with Betty, the blonde is frozen.

It’s hard to see through the rain, but two things are clear:

One, there is an injured person sprawled on the ground.  
Two, that person is Jughead.

Betty makes a sound between a yell and a cry and runs toward him, Archie and Veronica on her heels. Jughead glances backward, then gets a panicked look on his face and begins sort of pulling himself forward by trembling arms. He still hasn’t looked up at his friends.

Something is very, very wrong.

The three kneel beside their fallen friend, and Archie grabs Jughead’s shoulder.

Archie will later recall this as the moment everything went from terribly wrong to exceptionally, irreparably disastrous.

Archie taps Jughead on the shoulder, and Jughead flinches, throwing himself backward, away from the uninvited hand. He curls into himself, moaning, then finally looks up at them with wide, glassy eyes, and that is when it becomes apparent that Jughead’s lips are sewn shut.

Jughead’s. Lips. Are. Sewn. Shut. 

And he’s shaking, and crying, and sitting right in the path of a dark figure coming at him from behind and //oh shit that’s what he was trying to get away from before//.

Archie yells, “Jughead!” and Jughead looks at him, all wide eyes, but he doesn’t move, then the person lunges for him.

Jughead is hanging in the air, an arm is around his throat and he is bucking wildly, a flurry of frantic movements and his captor has to stop for a minute because the boy is flailing so wildly. 

But then Jughead receives a sharp kick to the left foot and he makes an awful high-pitched whine that’s muffled by that bloodstained thread and he goes limp long enough for the man to wrench his arms behind his back and begin dragging him back into the woods.

At this, Betty’s expression is the epitome of -hell no-

Betty makes a strangled sound somewhere between a yell and a cry and just //lunges//.

She’s screaming and thrashing and beating at the guy’s arms because //goddammit she just got Jughead back and he is not taking him away again.//

“Stop!”

Then Archie is pointing a gun and time is frozen.

“Let him go.”

The guy //laughs// and turns toward Archie, holding Jughead in front of him like a shield. No amount of adrenaline would make Archie’s aim precise enough to hit the guy and not Jughead. 

“I’ll tell you what. You and your little detective pals can go home and forget this happened, and no one will get hurt.”

Archie explodes. “No one will get hurt? Look at him! You sewed his fucking lips shut!”

“Watch your tongue, young man. We can be civil about this.” 

Jughead looks absolutely terrified. He’s shaking, and sobbing, and blood is dribbling down his chin and the sight of him is forever burned into Archie’s memory. 

Veronica clutches her phone with shaking hands. Angling it toward herself, she texts Kevin, typing with the speed of the gods.

“call 911 found jug by river”

“Put the phone down, young lady, or I’ll kill him.”

Veronica freezes; her thumb hovers over the send button.

The man pushes his blade against Jughead’s neck, drawing a thin line of blood. Jughead whimpers. 

“Okay. I’m putting it down, don’t hurt him.” 

No one sees her press send as she sets her phone on the ground.

XXX

//call 911 found jug by river//

“Shit.”

Kevin jumps out of bed. He pulls on a pair of jeans and he’s running, shouting for his dad and dialing 911.

His dad is trying to stop him, looking bleary eyed and irritable but Kevin blurts, “They found Jughead, they need help.” and suddenly both of them are running.

\-- Sheriff Keller hadn’t liked Jughead much, but he’d taken an interest in the case and Kevin tried to ignore the thought that perhaps it was because he had something to do with it --

His dad begins some attempt at convincing him to let the professionals take care of it but Kevin doesn’t even acknowledge it. These are his friends, goddamnit, and he was going to be there for them. 

They’re in the car, going /so/ far above the speed limit, but he doesn’t care because //something is very wrong about this//.

His dad swerves the car to a stop before pulling out his gun. He’s about to open the door when Kevin grabs his arm.

“Look.”

He can see his friends. Archie, Veronica, and Betty are at a standstill; there’s another figure, facing them, holding a knife to Jughead’s neck. Kevin pales.

Sheriff Keller isn’t a great cop. He isn’t even a great man. But damn him if he wasn’t going to get these kids out of here alive.

“I’ll go behind. You stay here. Get an ETA on that ambulance and tell them to hurry.”

XXX

“Let him go. Please, he didn’t do anything.”

The man has the audacity to chuckle. “No one is free of sin. Especially not Mr. Jones.”

Jughead groans. He looks half delirious. The man pushes his blade up against Jughead’s neck, drawing a thin line of blood.

“Turn back now, all of you. While your friend is still alive.”

(( if archie’s being completely honest jughead looks like he’s on death’s doorstep))

“We’re not leaving him.”

The man laughed, loud and long, and then a figure appeared behind him. 

“Let him go.”

Sheriff Keller.

Veronica gasps in surprisefearrelief as Kevin’s dad pulls out his gain, aiming at the man’s head.

“Nobody needs to get hurt. Just let go of the boy, and everything will be okay.”

“Don’t lie to me!” The man’s face is red; if they hadn’t been questioning his sanity before, surely they are now. “You’re gonna kill me. Or put me away.”

“Whatever happens will be a lot worse if you don’t let him go. You let him go, and I’ll make sure you’re safe. Deal?”

The man monster shook his head. “No… I won’t let you take me away like some, some dog.” Keller watches him mutter and shift; he watches Jughead’s head droop then jerk up as the knife digs into his neck. 

He won’t last long. Keller knows he has to do something, but the man beats him to it. 

In an instant, the guy jams his knife in and out of his neck. Blood sprays, coating Jughead’s neck and face. His captor gurgles and falls, taking Jughead with him.

Archie’s feet move on their own, and he falls to his knees by his friend. Jughead’s eyes are wild as he throws himself away from the corpse and into Archie’s arms. 

Sheriff Keller crouches down by the body; Veronica, Kevin, and Betty hover, making no attempt to pretend they aren’t staring at Jughead.

Archie holds Jughead, and Jughead just shakes.

XXX

The ambulance comes. They try to get Jughead on to a gurney, but Jughead is clinging to Archie with all the force of his malnourished, abused body. Archie puts his hand on his shoulder and lies to him, telling him it’ll all be okay. Jughead shakes his head and his eyes plead.

Exhaustion eventually gets him to lay down, but Archie holds tight to the cold, bony hand that reaches out for him.

No one can tear their eyes away from the mess of Jughead’s mouth. That, and the gory horror of his leg - Archie genuinely couldn’t believe how Jughead had managed to walk at all. The crusted blood, inflamed skin, and visible bone made for a stomach-turning sight.

The fear is still so plain in Jughead’s eyes, so raw, and that in itself terrifies Archie. 

They get to the hospital and the doctors pull their hands apart, push Archie away. Jughead honest-to-god screams and tries to sit up. One of the doctors adds something to Jughead’s IV, and just like that the fight drains out of him.

The rabid fear turns to drooping eyelids, and Archie can only watch as Jughead sags against the gurney. The crowd of doctors turns the corner, Jughead with them, and disappears from sight. 

Archie can’t find it in himself to do anything other than fall to his knees, right in the middle of that godforsaken hallway, his shirt drenched in blood. 

Nothing will ever be the same.

XXX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> somewhere along the line this turned into more of Jarchie than Bughead, and the only explanation I have is this: part of why I've been struggling to write is because I've been holding myself to certain standards instead of doing what feels right. Archie being there for Jughead - whether you view it as platonic or romantic - felt right. so yeah.
> 
> anyway... let me know what you thought. a million apologies for taking so long. if y'all really want another chapter let me know, I actually really like this story so I'd definitely be open to it. anyway, lots of love to y'all. if you're still here from before my hiatus, you are literally my favorite person ever.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this is. found it in my drafts. I'll finish chapter 2 eventually but right now I can't make the words go. anyway let me know what you think, feel free to leave prompts !!


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